Vijay Hazare Trophy: Reason why MS Dhoni Denied Playing for Jharkhand

After the national selection committee chairman, MSK Prasad publicly announced that MS Dhoni would be playing the Vijay Hazare Trophy quarter-finals and Dhoni declined the same on national media, the committee was left deeply embarrassed. And it has time and again been proven that the communication between the senior players and the selectors are bleak or almost negligible.

MS Dhoni says ‘NO’ to Jharkhand

However, MS Dhoni was expected to play the quarterfinals for Jharkhand against Maharashtra, although as a batsman he has mostly been out of touch since the past few years.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand’s chief coach, Rajiv Kumar says MS Dhoni has denied joining the squad at this stage, given the team has done reasonably well in his absence. Also, the former India captain says his inclusion might hinder the team balance which he doesn’t want.

“Dhoni feels that it would not be fair for him to join us at this stage, given that the team has done so well and reached the quarter-final stage in his absence. He doesn’t want to upset the team balance” said Rajiv Kumar, the Jharkhand Chief Coach

However, MSK Prasad had earlier confirmed the availability of MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu for Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018. Moreover, MSD has more or less played just seven T20Is and 15 ODIs in 2018.

“Dhoni is playing the knock-outs. About Rayadu, I will check and get back” Prasad claimed last Thursday.

Meanwhile, post this fiasco, it is now being questioned if Prasad had even considered consulting Dhoni before making a statement on media. Although with 32 points and Shahbaz Nadeem’s noteworthy performance, i.e. a world record spell of 8 for ten, Jharkhand recently topped the group league stage.

Vinod Rai questions MSK Prasad panel

Ironically, a senior BCCI official laughed at the series of events and mocked them stating, “Last heard, even VVS Lakshman didn’t get a chance to speak to Dhoni before announcing his retirement. I would love to know how MSK Prasad gets in touch with him. Hope he is telling the truth”.

As of now, it is being said that CoA chief Vinod Rai has already asked Prasad tough questions about the panel’s communication with their players and they are working on the same.